St Katherine's by the tower a novel Author:Walter Besant Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: woodwork of the stall, the tracery of the great Catherine Wheel in the east, the old pulpit with its pictures carved on the six sides, and the ancient monuments ... more »in the chancel, while the preacher read the discourse, which was far too learned for children to comprehend, and far too closely reasoned for the rude people, who knew no other argument than a command, and no other reason than the stick. These children played about the ancient place, quiet and secluded amid houses and streets filled with the baser sort—about its cloisters the pigeons flew and walked, tame and not afraid—in its burial-ground cawed the rooks and built their nests—the sailors and watermen came never, not even on Sundays, within its sacred enclosure—the venerable church rose in the midst, worn and gnawed by the tooth of time, gray and black; a church far too large and ample for its little congregation—where daily prayers were read to a few schoolboys and bedeswomen—the efficiency of daily prayer must not be measured by the number of the worshippers. Within the hospital dwelt dignity, peace, learning, piety, and good manners. Outside . . . Those who live and are brought up by the riverside east of the tower have to become very early inured to the rude and rough manners, the profligacy, the horrid blasphemies, and the wretchedness of the people. Here Arcadia becomes Alsatia—it is a very sink of all iniquities. At first sight it would seem as if the long, narrow strip of land covered with houses which begins at the iron gate and ceases not until you reach Limehonse Dock is filled with nothing but rogues and villains. This, indeed, is not the case. There are righteous men even among the Wappingers. There arc honest tradesmen and manufacturers, boat-builders, mast-makers, rope-makers, sail- makers ; there are here ...« less